AN INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER OF UNIQUE BOOKS

I will be incredibly busy over the next few months (already have been), so I thought I’d post about my current projects. In other words, you won’t hear from me in a long while (perhaps months, maybe not until summer). I have a lot of stuff on my plate, in various stages of development, so what follows is a summarized run-down.

Why am I so busy? I have been taking on editing and book design projects for clients, proofreading, editing and copyediting for Independent Legions Publishing, and have recently taken on a part-time role as Developmental Editor for New Degree Press to help new writers bring their books to life (and you can add “ghostwriting” to my resume ). Meanwhile, I am trying to finish a science fiction thriller called Seen in Distant Stars, and writing fiction and nonfiction to perhaps make a few sales and help pay the bills.

So here goes …

PSYCHOTROPIC DRAGON

This is a composite novel that’s been “in the works” since 2009 (yes, ten years!). Many have been waiting patiently for this book, and hopefully the wait won’t be much longer because I consider the manuscript done. Word-count is a little under 90,000.

Why “composite” and why the long wait? Well, it’s part short novel, part novella, part novelette, includes a few children’s fables throughout, and four illustrators have been involved with its development over the last ten years (48 illustrations total!). I should also mention John Skipp played an early part in this thing coming together, as well as my three amigos: Thomas F. Monteleone, F. Paul Wilson, and Douglas E. Winter.

So, where does it stand, then, this beautiful whatever-it-is?

My agent is busy shopping this monster. With a little luck and patience, perhaps it will sell (which could mean a while longer before it finds print). We have high hopes, though, so we’re aiming high. It’s worth the wait (I promise), and while the book works on its own, Psychotropic Dragon has many tie-ins to my other works, most notably the two previous composite novels, Palindrome Hannahand Phoenix Rose. Other tie-ins include the novelette Our Children, Our Teachers, the children’s bookEnso, and various work from Inkblots and Blood Spots.

The cover image above is from an “Advance Reader Copy” I created to make it easier for pre-readers to grasp the overall concept, and to perhaps gain a few more blurbs for promotion. This image has kept the project going, always on my mind.

One of my first pre-readers (and originally a collaborator, believe it or not) was Dallas Mayr, aka Jack Ketchum; while he couldn’t contribute to the fiction, when all was said and done, he offered a generous cover blurb instead. He loved this thing almost as much as I do: “Addictive, scary, and at times, mind-blowing.” Can’t ask for much better than that, right? Other collaborators have been in talks, but eventually I decided to finish this thing on my own, at least in terms of the text.

The illustrators? Ty Scheuerman worked on early concepts, Daniele Serra on illustrations for the novelette and spot-pieces throughout, Glenn Chadborne on the novella, and L.A. Spooner on the short novel and fables. Insane, right? Whether or not the illustrations (48!) will make it into the final product is yet to be determined, but here are a few teasers (section titles and visuals). Let’s just say this book is wild! No matter what, Psychotropic Dragon will someday have a “special edition,” which will include everything.

ORIGINAL CONCEPTS (Ty Scheuerman):

SOMNAMBULISM / I SUMMON LAMBS (novelette / Daniele Serra):

A ROSE / AROSE (novella / Glen Chadbourne):

DRAKEIN (short novel / L.A. Spooner):

As for the fables, they are titled ECLOSE, SCARLET HOURGLASS, ACHERONTIAATROPOS, and APODEMUS. And a few of the other chapters connecting all this insanity: THE BEGINNING OF THE END, DEATH’S-HEAD, LIFE-MAGIC, ENSŌ, and THE END OF THE BEGINNING. Like I mentioned before, this book is something wild!

Soon (haven’t I said that before?) …

SEVEN MINUTES

This book, which was recently trimmed from 100,000 words to 80,000 words, is the strongest thing I’ve ever written, and happens to be nonfiction. I’ll be reading a seven-minute chapter (called “Seven Minutes”) at StokerCon in May. Advance Reader / Burn After Reading copies are currently making the rounds while my agent shops this one around the nonfiction market (although nonfiction is something new for both of us).

I wrote the manuscript in 23 days (most pages on an old Royal typewriter, about 75,000 words). 23 days happens to be how long the Tubbs fire burned (the setting for this book), and how long my cat Bram went missing (the end of the fire and the day he was found, one in the same), and so I made that my goal: to finish an entire book in under a month! The third draft was completed on day 23, the first anniversary of the day the Tubbs fire was finally extinguished, the day Bram was found.

The book is about the fire that took our home and many others (somewhere around 5,600 from the Tubbs fire alone), changing our lives (and many others’) forever. The book is structured like a therapy session. It contains poetry and lots of hard truths, with the narrative bouncing from first-person to first-person collective to second-person.

This one is close to the heart.

THE IMPOSSIBLE WEIGHT OF LIFE

This would be fiction collection number three (roughly 90,000 words, so lengthier than my previous collections), and will feature short fiction, long fiction, and a few poems (one quite long). Three of the stories have been nominated for the Bram Stoker Awards*, and most of the others have found their way into anthologies over the last few years. Most are autobiographical, in one way or another, and most were written during my recovery from Loss of Bilateral Labyrinthine Function.

My agent is shopping this one around as well (yes, I have her very busy), but here’s a teaser of its tentative contents:

This is an anthology I co-edited with Darren Speegle, to be release soon through PS Publishing. Expect more information on release dates and pre-ordering and whatnot as soon as its available. We’re hoping for a 2019 release date, if all the stars align. This is not the cover, but a mock-up I created during early development:

And here is the official Table of Contents (and word counts). Yes, this book will be something incredible:

This is an anthology I am currently co-editing with the always wonderful Doug Murano, to be released through Written Backwards. Expect this one in early 2020. Here is a glimpse of what we’re thinking for the cover. Follow along here!

As always, expect an incredible anthology! The first two story acceptances:

Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors, co-edited by Bram Stoker Award-winning editors Doug Murano and Michael Bailey, is officially the next anthology to be released by Written Backwards. More news soon, but look forward to this exciting miscreation in early 2020!

Written Backwards has survived over the years publishing a wide array of creativity: short stories, novelettes, novellas, poetry, illustrations and, most recently, graphic adaptations. Most of the work appears in original anthologies, but a few select novels, debut fiction collections, and other strange projects have popped up over the years.

The goal: to seek diverse work, to push literary boundaries, to create the most beautiful books imaginable (and to provide professional-rate payments to contributors when at all possible). The result: a who’s who list of writers and artists. Millions of words. Hundreds of illustrations. Familiarize yourself with these wonderful people.

So, just who has Written Backwards published over the years, and where? Here’s a start, alphabetically by last name. All are short stories (unless specified, like this).

Although this book will not be published through Written Backwards (scheduled to be released through PS Publishing in 2019), I am proud to announce the next dark science-fiction anthology co-edited by the always-incredible Darren Speegle, and by yours truly.

Prisms is perhaps the most diverse project I have ever had the pleasure of working on, and has a ratio of 50:50 male to female writers, which has been both a dream and goal of mine these last few years.

What is the prism, in this case? The dispersion of humankind into the spectrum of herself / himself; an object, a place, or something figurative; the human condition as it relates to the self, or to humankind in general; ascension; translation …

Written Backwards is taking over the production of Adam’s Ladder, an anthology of dark science fiction co-edited by Michael Bailey and Darren Speegle, but we need your help to bring this book to life!

To help fund this project, an Indiegogo campaign has been established and will now through October 15th. This is an all-or-nothing campaign, so help out if you can. Full funding will assure that all contributors receive professional payment for their work. And upon funding, campaign backers won’t have to wait long to receive their book orders. The trade paperback and eBook are scheduled for release in mid- to -late-October, with the deluxe hardback available in November.

What is to Become of Humankind?

The future of humankind as an ever-changing organism is a subject of much debate. Where is our evolutionary path leading? Will the next rung take the form of mental transcendence, will it set humankind on a course toward divinity, or will this uncertain path involve a dark and terrible reversion? Co-editors Michael Bailey and Darren Speegle present eighteen tales of dark science fiction that explore the course of evolution, written by some of the best literary minds in the fields of science fiction and horror:

Laird Barron – “Swift to Chase”

Chaz Brenchley – “Ch-ch-changes”

Ramsey Campbell – “How He Helped”

Scott Edelman – “Pity this Busy Monster Not”

Brian Evenson – “Nameless Citizen”

Erinn L. Kemper – “A Laughing Matter”

John Langan – “My Father, Dr. Frankenstein”

Roberta Lannes – “Painting the Burning Fence”

Tim Lebbon – “Strings”

Rena Mason – “I Will Be the Making of You”

Paul Meloy – “The Serile”

Mark Morris – “Undersound”

Lisa Morton – “Eyes of the Beholders”

Gene O’Neill – “Spirits”

Mark Samuels – “An End to Perpetual Motion”

B.E. Scully – “The Mythic Hero Most Likely to Squeeze a Stone”

Jeffrey Thomas – “Sliced Bread”

Damien Angelica Walters – “Filigree, Minotaur, Cyanide, Bloom”

Adam’s Ladder will be published in eBook, trade paperback, and in a 100-numbered / limited edition (signed by its editors, Michael Bailey and Darren Speegle).

Does it have a book trailer?

Click this image below:

What will the trade paperback look like?

Something like this:

What is to Become of Written Backwards?

Over the last ten years, Written Backwards has published multiple award-winning anthologies, fiction collections, and standalone novels and novellas, ranging from dark science fiction to horror. Previous anthologies include the Bram Stoker Award-winning The Library of the Dead, the Benjamin Franklin Award winning (and Stoker nominated) Qualia Nous, and three volumes of Chiral Mad (the latest also up for a Stoker). Books published by Written Backwards have seen eight individual works nominated for the prestigious Bram Stoker Award, with three of those stories taking home the statue. Other stories/poems have been nominated for the Nebula, the Rhysling, and others. Foreword Reviews Book of the Year, the Indie Book Awards, the Independent Publisher Book Awards, the Eric Hoffer Book Award, the International Book Award … Written Backwards titles have seen over two dozen literary accolades over the years through its handful of titles! But we need your help bringing the next project to life: Adam’s Ladder.

With your help, Written Backwards can continue in its legacy to:

Seek out diverse voices, both new and well-established.

Pay writers, poets, and artists professional rates.

Provide fair publishing contracts.

Design and publish some of the most beautiful books imaginable.

What is to Become of this Campaign?

You’re probably wondering where your money will go for this particular campaign. Here’s the breakdown:

63.64% – goes directly to the writers, which includes professional payment at a per-word rate, plus the cost of contributor copies for the various editions of the book.

31.22% – goes directly to publication costs for the eBook, trade paperback, and hardback editions of the book.

5.14% – covers shipping.

And that’s it. Zero profit will be made from this campaign. Any additional funds raised will go directly to future Written Backwards projects, some of which are already lined up as expansions/unlocks within this campaign.

This is an all-or-nothing campaign, so if it doesn’t reach it’s goal, the project gets canned. Anthologies (let’s face it), are expensive to make (but we all want them), mostly because there are so many incredible contributors involved. We need to raise $6,500 to make this book happen, so we’ve come up with some enticing perks.

And that’s how you can help …

Written Backwards has some tricks to bring you even more great (and FREE) books in the form of campaign unlocks and future anthologies.

Pellucid Lunacy was the first anthology published by Written Backwards, and after ten years, the book is getting a face-lift. When the campaign reaches $7,000, all backers (contributing $95 or higher) will receive a complimentary copy of the trade paperback!

The title and author of the third illustrated book in the Allevon series by Written Backwards will be revealed when the campaign reaches $8,000, and all backers (contributing $95 or higher) will receive a complimentary copy of the trade paperback.

The title and tentative cover of the next dark science fiction anthology by Written Backwards will be revealed when the campaign reaches $12,000, and all backers (contributing $95 or higher) will receive a complimentary digital copy in either PDF or EPUB.

ADAM’S LADDER, a dark science fiction anthology I co-edited with Darren Speegle, is coming soon from Dark Regions Press. This is the follow-up to DRP’s highly successful return to science fiction with last year’s anthology, You, Human, and Marc Levinthal’s debut novel, Other Music. We’re hoping for an August release for the trade paperback edition.

Adam’s Ladder is officially the next book I’ll be working on for Dark Regions Press, an evolutionary / sci-fi anthology I’m co-editing with Darren Speegle.

Contributor announcements will be leaked soon, as contracts are finalized, so stay tuned. Not too much can be revealed about this project as of yet, other than the fact that it’s full and we are not accepting submissions, but I can tell you that much like You Human, Qualia Nous, The Library of the Dead, and the Chiral Mad anthologies, this one will be epic, and will feature some incredible writers I’ve never had the opportunity of worked with before.